New Britain Mayor Proposes $239.56 Million Budget; Says Plan Will Not Increase Taxes

April 10, 2013|By KEN BYRON, kbyron@courant.com, The Hartford Courant

NEW BRITAIN — — Mayor Tim O'Brien on Wednesday presented a $239.56 million budget for 2013-14 which he said would boost spending by about $7 million, but not require a tax increase.

O'Brien said his proposed budget attempts to move the city forward after years no progress.

"This sets a course for the future of New Britain in a very bold way," O'Brien said in an interview. "Last year, we laid a lot of groundwork and this year we are turning to the future. I ran for mayor because I want New Britain to have a bright future and to meet its potential."

The common council will schedule a public hearing on the budget before voting whether to approve it later this spring.

The biggest infusion of additional spending goes to the board of education. Under O'Brien's plan, , school spending would jump by $22.6 million. Of that, $18 million would come in the form of a bond issue that would be used to buy new textbooks and classroom technology and pay for much-needed maintenance.

The education intiative was greeted with enthusiastically by school officials this week, who said the additional money comes after years of level funding for education, which forced cutbacks.

But O'Brien said his budget also includes provisions to foster economic growth and investments in neighborhood improvement projects. Those include $4 million to bring city pools back into service, $5 million for road repair, $200,000 to fix damaged war memorials and a community gardens initiative.

O'Brien said some of the money for the additional spending comes from savings the city has implemented since he became mayor in 2011, such as consolidating 22 city departments into six.

But he said the city will have to look for additional revenue to fund the budget, such as trying to get Medicaid reimbursement for some health services the city offers to residents.

"If we want to make things work we will have to be creative," O'Brien said. "We will look at some creative ideas for being able to receive money that was owed to the city but was not taken advantage of before."